When toddler and grandmother
follow the garden path
ready to pick new peas
they come upon a steaming
pile of bear scat.
They calmly turn around,
go home without the peas.
Taking fifty dollars from her purse
laying it on the table
the woman simply says
W.M. Herring is an emerging writer who lives, works and observes nature in rural north-central British Columbia. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Arc Poetry, Christian Century, The Nashwaak Review, Passion: Poetry, The Prairie Journal and Time of Singing.